Phragmites communis is a perennial gramineous plant. Its whole plant is divided into six parts: root, rhizome, aerial stem, leaf, flower and seed. The aerial stem of Phragmites communis is mainly used to make reed painting. The above-ground stems of Phragmites communis grow upright, and its thickness and height vary greatly due to varieties, soil, nutrients, moisture, salt and climatic conditions.
selecting reeds
To make reed painting, reeds with a height of 2-6 meters and a thickness of about 1-15 cm should be selected. Selecting reeds carefully is a careful job. Only by selecting high-quality reeds that are upright, clean, white and dry can the processed reed be white in color, flexible in texture and fine in fiber.
Trim the reeds
Put a handful of reeds across the ground, take a pair of scissors, and trim the reeds into sections first. There are many indurations on reeds. These indurations can't be used. You should cut them off one by one with scissors, leaving only a uniform reed stalk in the middle.
The outermost layer of reed is wrapped with dry leaves. When pruning, these dry leaves are removed conveniently, leaving only a smooth and upright cylinder.
ironing reeds
before ironing reeds, take a bucket of clean water and soak the selected reeds in the clean water for three to five minutes to soften the reeds so as not to crack when ironing.
ironing reed is to break the reed stalk and press it into a flat reed piece by high temperature.
The machine used for ironing reed is called reed setting machine, which is equipped with a blade in front. When the reed stalk continues inward, a crack is cut on the upward side, and then the reed is spread flat and sent to the electric heating rod pressing mechanism. After high-temperature ironing, the reed sheet is changed from a curled cylinder into a flat reed sheet. The temperature of the electric heating rod should be kept at 1 degrees Celsius, so as not to exceed this temperature for ironing, so as not to destroy the tissue structure of reed fibers and cause scorching.
grinding and polishing
inside the reed stalks, there is a layer of reed pulp, and this layer of reed pulp should be polished with fine sandpaper, so that it can be leveled when reed painting is pasted. So far, the preliminary treatment of reed has been completed. These carefully treated reed sheets are not only white and firm, but also tough, emitting a natural fragrance. The main method of making reed painting is pruning, but the ways of pruning are different, and the most commonly used one is pruning according to the picture.
Trim according to the figure
First, trim the edges of the reeds neatly. On a flat small table, take a ruler and a knife, cut a knife vertically along the edge of the reed, and then treat the other side of the reed in the same way. The purpose of this is to remove the uneven parts on the edge and help to paste it neatly.
paste the neatly trimmed reed pieces together with paste. When pasting, the paste should not be too much, otherwise there will be marks penetrating into the front of the reed pieces. After pasting each piece, check whether it is flat or not, and it is required to be flat and consistent, leaving no gaps.
after the reed is pasted, dry it for a period of time until the reed is dry.
On the side with white paper, draw small parts with a pencil, and then cut them along the outline of the pattern with scissors to assemble the whole reed painting. This method of trimming along the pattern is most suitable for making well-defined objects, such as rocks, human or animal bodies, flowers and so on.
sometimes, it can be trimmed obliquely according to the pattern required by the pattern. For example, the trimming of animal feathers is to first cut reed pieces into reed pieces inclined at a 45-degree angle, then put them together symmetrically, and then trim the shape of feathers. As a result, the pattern is not only beautiful, but also three-dimensional.
waterline
the method of waterline cutting is very simple, that is, cutting reed slices into filaments several millimeters wide with a knife. Although this technique is simple, it is used in many places, such as the waterline in reed painting, the drawstring of sailing boats and so on.
ear cutting
the way of ear cutting is somewhat similar to the way a barber cuts his hair. Hold one end of reed with one hand, hold scissors with the other hand, and trim it with the tip of scissors. The scissors are vertical or slightly inclined to trim reed into jagged zigzag, so that reed has a natural fluffy and light floating feeling.
In reed painting, the hair of animals, the core of plants and the hair of figures are all cut out with scissors, and then glued layer by layer. For example, tigers, squirrels, cats, wild ducks and cuddly little pandas are all made in this way, and a "little wild duck" has to be glued to dozens to hundreds of layers. Drawing
With the younger generation of workers joining the production team in reed painting, many complicated and time-consuming processes have been replaced by modern methods, and drawing is one of them.
In the past, old artists used hand-drawing, while young people began to use computer drawing. Computer drawing has many advantages. First, it can collect all kinds of information from the Internet and enrich the content of reed painting. Second, it can be modified at any time, and the painting is not ideal, so it is very convenient to alter it.
Drawing decomposition
After drawing the sample drawing, the next step is to decompose the pattern. For example, when we have drawn a small animal, we should decompose its head, body, wings, legs, even eyes, nose and mouth into parts, number them, and make a part drawing, which will be submitted to the next process together with the pattern.
Making parts
With a complete pattern and parts drawing, our operation in this step is relatively simple. Let's first analyze which patterns are suitable for trimming according to the drawing, which ones are suitable for cutting silk and which ones need cutting ears.
Let's take the fish every year as an example and take a closer look at reed painting's production technology.
The composition of this painting is relatively clear and the structure is relatively simple. It mainly consists of three parts: lotus, carp and children.
First, according to the exploded view of parts, cut out the main parts of lotus, carp and children with scissors.
the next most important step is ironing.
Use a soldering iron to burn a trace along the edge of the carp. The scalded carp looks like a shadow on the painting, which increases the three-dimensional effect.
Before hot painting with a soldering iron, test the temperature of the soldering iron on some broken reed pieces to see if it can reach the expected color.
The colors of reed painting are all branded with soldering irons, and the degree of color depends on the temperature of soldering irons, the strength of branding on the surface of reeds and the length of time. If the color is darker, the iron should be pressed slowly on the reed. If a part needs to be lighter, the iron should be pressed faster, so that the required color can be obtained.
Just like the scales on this fish, the burnt lines are combined with the natural patterns of reeds to create a lively carp.
pyrography has four techniques: hook, dot, curl and dye. Tick, that is, gently tick the picture with a soldering iron; Point, that is, use the tip contact of the soldering iron; Twisted, that is, curved soldering iron, branded the texture of the object and the back of yin and yang; Dyeing, that is, gently wiping with a flat head of a soldering iron, produces effects such as clouds and distant mountains.
Excellent artists can use the soldering iron freely, which can produce five levels of tones: carbon, burnt, dark, brown and light. Some artists can also reproduce light clouds, running water, stones and the eyes of people or animals, and so on.
Using a soldering iron is a very complicated process. It is necessary to master not only the temperature of the soldering iron, but also the strength of the hand. If you are not careful, you may lose all your efforts. As the soldering iron draws deep or shallow marks on the reed, you will form a beautiful picture.
With vivid carp and lovely children, the next job is to put them together according to the drawings.
Pinhe Reed Painting
Because the basic color of reed painting is yellow and it has a glittering and translucent color, it is most suitable to use black velvet cloth as the substrate.
in order to keep the flannel flat when sticking patterns, we fixed it on the plywood. Take a piece of plywood slightly larger than flannel, lay it flat on the table, and then apply white latex. Stretch out the flannel and flatten it by hand. Open the edges and corners of the flannel, and then apply a little latex to stick the flannel firmly.
paste the made parts on the flannel one by one, and this lifelike reed painting is made.
This is reed painting with the theme of traditional Chinese New Year pictures. There are lively children and carp symbolizing good luck, so we named it "Year after Year".
This reed painting, named "More than a Year", because of its simple content, only uses the method of trimming parts according to the pattern, then coloring them and finally pasting them.
Mounting
A complete picture of reed painting needs to be more beautiful and easy to preserve, circulate and collect, so it is impossible to mount it.
the mounting materials are picture frame, glass, hanging nose and cardboard.
The selection of reed painting frames is very important. We should not choose those magnificent frames, but choose simple and natural wooden frames to match the pristine nature of reed painting.
put the picture frame face down on the table, and brush the cleaned glass again with a brush to remove impurities and dust.
spread the glass flat to the center of the picture frame and cover it with cardboard.
clean the finished reed painting with a brush, and install the picture downwards and the plywood upwards firmly with the picture frame.
Fix the whole reed painting firmly with a special nailing tool.
there is a gap between the plywood and the picture frame, and in order to prevent dust from entering, the four sides should be glued with adhesive tape.
finally, fix reed painting's hanging nose in a proper position.
A delicate and meticulous reed painting is all finished.